Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Inspired by Tom Saxton's FRC Tracker for the iPhone, I took some time out of the busy build season to create an Android app that serves a similar purpose.

Competition data is aggregated on a server app that Dave Flowerday created to scrape the FIRST results pages and FMS Twitter feed. The Android app queries the server to retrieve 2010 team and event info and store it into a local database. Once scores and rankings are posted, the app downloads those as well and packages it all up in a friendly, viewable format. You can view lists of all the teams & events, filter by your favorites, or filter by the current weekend's events.

You have to update event results manually for now. The long term goal is to update them in the background, but there was not enough time to get that done before the first week of regionals.

You can find the app on the Android Market. Search for "FRC Spyder" and give it a try. You can also follow the frcspyder twitter feed for updates.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Mike,

This sounds absolutely great! I've got it on my phone now, and it looks like it will be a great boon for Android folks at competitions.

If you're interested in incorporating data from The Blue Alliance, let me know and I will get you an API key.

You might also be able to add Photos like FRC Tracker has on iPhone, or maybe even video playback! Many of the videos on TBA are in h.264, which I think Android devices can play.

Any chance you'll open source the application? Maybe others can contribute improvements or bug fixes!

Love it!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Coincidentally, I just got a Droid today. This is a really useful app. When everyone is crowding around the tiny TV screen looking for standings, I can casually take out my phone. Awesome job!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I love this app! The only capability I would have liked added is the ability to take pictures using the phones camera and set it to display under each teams profile. That way you could take shots of the robots and have them display when looking through the team list.

What do you know, we won our first match!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I would love if you could integrate with the blue alliance so that we can pull up pictures of any team.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Looks sweet. Can't wait to c see it in action on my Hero!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Thanks everyone. I'll consider adding TBA photos & videos after I get a couple more features implemented. If you have any other feature requests, suggest them and I'll put them somewhere on the to-do list. Also, please let me know if you see any problems or if something doesn't look right on your particular phone. I've tested the app extensively on the Droid & the emulator, but not on any other actual phones. There's a chance a screen may not display quite right since Android runs on so many different platforms and supports multiple resolutions.

Brad, the scores you saw for BAE was some junk data most likely pushed by someone testing the software while setting up. It's gone now, but is bound to show up at another event when they start testing.

Greg, what data do you provide that isn't available in FRC Spyder? If you have something that we're missing, I'm up for adding it.

There are no current plans to open source the application. I need to get a handle on all the features I still want to implement and plan out what else should be added. Maybe in the future, maybe not.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

At this moment, the updates are failing to download, on the Droid.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

The update seems to be working for me on Droid. Are you seeing errors or just not getting data? If the event hasn't scheduled anything yet there wouldn't be schedule/results/rankings to display.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

My theory is it's Verizon's network (quick, someone call that guy from the commercials!). I'm seeing problems on my phone too both within the app and from the phone's browser. If I use the emulator, switch my phone to wifi, or use the browser on my laptop, it works perfectly.

My HTTP timeout may have been too aggressive, so I'm putting together a new build that extends it to 30 secs. If the problem is in Verizon's network, this won't fix it, but it may help a little.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Can you attach some notes for each team that can be input by the user? Intent would be for scouting notes. A simple text file would get it done.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Thank you for this app, i have the mytouch and dont know if it works, but it does get the teams that are attending the regional and would be nice to pull up the team and take a pic of it>!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Well, there goes my plans to make one! I guess it's better by someone who knows what they're doing than someone who's still learning.

Once my phone gets turned back on, I'll definitely check this out!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

TBA offers robot photos you could offer through the app. The iPhone FRC Tracker offers TBA photos, and new ones can be submitted by users back to TBA for everyone to benefit from.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Can you make an update option when we are viewing teams? For example if I go to the Global team list, select a team and then select an event unless I've updated on that event's page I can't see most recent results.

Also is there any way to have the app update every time I open it?

Also using it on Droid and Verizon, no problems great work.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I'll let Mike respond about future versions, but for now what I've been doing is to favorite the events that I'm interested in (long press on the event in the All Events tab), then while on the Favorites tab do an update. It will only update events that are in the Favorites list (same goes for the Current tab).

I've talked with Mike about things that he has planned for FRCSpyder and can't wait to see them implemented.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This app has been loads of fun today. It makes jumping through webcasts way more efficient. Thanks Mike!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This being the first weekend of events and the first chance for everyone, including me, to use the app with real data, deficiencies will certainly be found. I've grown frustrated a few times when I'm on a screen without updated data and want a refresh. I'll add menus to more places that allow the user to update event results.

I'm planning out ways to make updating better and less intrusive, but don't have it ironed out yet. Maybe by next weekend, we'll see. I don't want the app to automatically update when it opens because in the current implementation, it spins in the foreground and takes a while to finish.

For now, use Dave's suggestion and add a couple of events to your favorites and update those as needed.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Ok, either way it is a very useful app. In some cases today while at BAE GSR I was able to get a score before the score was shown in the arena.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This works great on my G1. There is some data which is missing/wrong, however. Specifically, when teams get disqualified, there is no indication of this. If a team is DQed, but their alliance wins, it currently shows up as a win. I suspect the rankings are wrong as well, because of this. (San Diego has had several DQs.)

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

We can only provide data that's available from FIRST. There is no information available about DQs so therefore we can't use that in our application. However, the rankings that FRC Spyder shows are pulled directly from the FIRST rankings pages, so DQs should be accounted for.

The Win/Loss/Tie information is extra data that is calculated by our server based on the final scores, so as you point out this won't be correct in the case of DQs. I still think it's better than not having it at all though. It's too bad that FIRST chose not to provide W/L/T info in their rankings - even if it doesn't count towards the rankings I think it is still useful/interesting information.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This is excellent! Thank you! Can't wait to use it tomorrow.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

The FRC Spyder app had been my best friend at comps this year!

As a coach, I used to be so attached to the match list…”No body touches it but me!” This year I don’t think I even looked at the match list thanks to this app. Well OK, I looked at it to make sure the list was right...:D

No more standing in front of the crowded monitors in the pits looking for your team number. Only to realize it has passed by about three times cause you keep blinking due to dry eyes and the need to try to refocus them on the tiny blurry number. Is that a 6 or an 8…

Thanks Mike! FRC Spyder is Totally Awesome!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I just posted v1.0.3 to the market which adds automatic background updates for your favorite events. You can set it to pull down match results & rankings in durations ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours. As part of this change, I also moved all updates into the background so you can continue to navigate the app while the updates are running.

The same is true for our coach. He used to own the match list and wouldn't give it up. When we made copies this year & tried to give him one, he refused it and used his Droid instead.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

One quick question about this most recent update. If I tell it to update every 15min will it attempt to update every 15min for only the thurday-saturday of the event or will it be attempting to update every 15min for the duration the app is installed?

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I went for a hybrid approach between the ideal (only updating from Thursday - Saturday for an event that is running) and the lazy (update all favorites all the time). The app will actually get an alarm to wake up at the frequency that you choose, but it will only update favorites that appear in the "Current" tab. So if you have 10 favorite events & only 2 of them are happening this weekend, it will pull data for those 2 events. If none of your favorites are happening now, it won't pull down any updates from the server. So if you leave automatic updates enabled after the season is over, the most that will happen at the set period is a few DB reads.

My plan for the next version will make this less of an issue.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This is a great app; it's really simple and easy to use. It took me a while to figure out how to refresh listings, but its easy enough now that I know how to. I would love if it had an automatic refresh setting, which isn't a necessity, but more just a convenience. I also think it would be great if it linked to team TBA pages.

Keep up the good work

EDIT:wow, I just saw the automatic update setting, that is great!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Awesome, sounds like a good solution.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Is it just me, or are the times a little screwy for the match schedules? The Michigan State Championship has matches running past midnight, and then starting at 6pm.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Hah, yeah. They're like that on the FIRST website though, and that's where the info is pulled from. My guess is that the FMS couldn't handle the 3 day event

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I am currently useing this APP at the CT regional and it is great, it is nice to be able to keep track of scores without haveing to go check the info on the screen in the pits.

THANKS!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Fantastic, love the app!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Defiantly the best Android app on the market.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This app rocks! We have several people, myself included, that have Android and use this app religiously at competition.

It's also nice not having to huddle around the ranking monitor to find your rank or the rank of teams you're following.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This app made getting a Moto Droid worthwhile. It gave instant updates for rankings immediately after each match at Troy. This weekend at MSC, however, I noticed that it took almost an hour between actual updates. This happened to myself, and my sister. Until about lunch today, it did not even register that any teams were attending. Yesterday, this was frustrating and today it was not much better. Was there an issue today? Is this just a fluke?
Other than that though, amazing.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

There was a problem between our server and the twitter feed that triggers updates as soon as the match is scored. Without the trigger from twitter, we only update every 10 minutes. I don't know why you would have seen an hour delay, the most should have been ~10 minutes. It's all fixed and from what I've seen this morning, updates seem to be in real time again.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This was really great to use at the Connecticut Regional today! Thanks for fixing the HTML character escaping bug too! :)

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

FRC Spyder is a fantastic app. It runs smoothly and I've had no problems with it. A search function would be useful to help find teams, matches, and events faster. Thanks both the dev for the android version and iphone version of FRC apps. Every iphone and android user on 1676 has either spyder or tracker running on their device :)
Attachment 8981

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I posted v1.0.4 to the market; it adds a desktop widget that displays the results for all your favorite events. I also tied the automatic background updates into the widget which means they are only enabled when you have a widget on your desktop. You can still configure the frequency of updates in the settings screen and can disable automatic updates even if you are using the widget.

This is the last FRC Spyder update from me this year. Now back to scouting...

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

This was way more than I expected. This should definitely last us until next year! Thank you for such a great app. :)

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Mike,

Not sure if it'd be too much work, but any chance FRC Sypder might work at IRI?

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

My guess the data feeds that the app needs are not there for IRI.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Good idea Jon, I'll look into it.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

What is FRC Spyder's backend written in? I've been working on TBAv4 and have used some of Pat Fairbank's frclinks code as reference code, and thought it would be great to take a peek at how FRC Spyder works.

Thanks!
-Greg

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Is there any chance this app will be updated, refined, improved etc. for 2011?

One suggestion/request: Could a "Offensive Power Ranking" algorithm be added? Maybe a "Defensive Power Ranking" as well? One that is run for each competition.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Certainly
Probably
Probably. The number of new features I add depends on how much motivation I have and how much time I can dedicate to working on it.

I'll add it to the to-do list, but there are no guarantees that it will be near the top. I have a few items I want to get done first, then I'll consider everything else.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

On a phone, the OPR/DPR calculations will eat up battery life as if there weren't enough LiPo cells in the universe. Thus, this information is best calculated on a server and fed to the clients. I've experimented with just such a program that does OPR/DPR based off of the live frcfms Twitter feed for IRI, and the results weren't pretty.

Since I used Java on a my jailbroken iPhone, I should be able to do some rewrites for use on a Netbook; however battery life and internet connections are still a concern.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I just noticed, this is my 1000th post on CD.

That is good to hear.
I am not a programmer by trade, but in supporting two teams over the last 7 years, I have done a fair share of the coding. I am more than willing to contribute if you need it. PM me if I can help.

Jesse,

Wow, excellent feedback and input. I definately se your point.

I have to assume FIRST will not be allowing teams to set up WiFi networks at competitions this year either, so having a local server may not be an option, but that doesn't stop us from using one of the other OPR/DPR apps that are already out there in conjunction with the Droid apps. like FRC Spyder. Now I'm certain some bright soal will find a way to have the OPR/DPR running on a server and then making the result available via a Droid app. in no time.:yikes:

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I've noticed no drop off in battery life using the OPR function in FRC Tracker for iPhone...

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

But we're talking about cell phones. Unless you have no signal (which is entirely possible at some regionals), WiFi won't be a problem if it's calculated on an internet server. Probably more reliable and speedy, too. I can donate a server if it comes to that. Or AppEngine would be a great resource to try first.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

synth3tk,

You and I are on the same page. If the OPR/DPR could be running in real time on a web server some place, then all a programmer would need to do is grab the data set for the desired regional and display it. Again, speaking from my limited programming skills, that doesn't seem to be too difficult.
(BTW, I might be able to put a server on line as well. I'll see if I can blow the dust out of it and bring it up in the next day or so.)

Bongle already has an app. that does the data gathering and processing. A scheduled set of batch files calling his app could be run on the server and the data could be automatically created, say once every 2-3 minutes. With that piece already working, the integration of the generated data should be "fairly simple".

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I was playing around with something like this a few weeks ago.

http://frcstats.appspot.com/opr/arc/2010

Output formatting liable to change.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

That takes care of that, then!

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

That works well. I also tried swapping out the year and competition site and it worked correctly.
I can see where formatting might need an adjustment or two, but the first step is well on it's way to completion.

Depending on this years game, having access to DPR as well might be nice.

BTW, are you using your own code, or a modified version of something else in the background?

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I wrote my own code. It's pretty ugly, given that Google's Python environment for App Engine doesn't have any libraries that provide support for manipulating and multiplying matrices.

I basically just pounded it out in a couple of hours, then completely lost interest once I saw it was working - but my plan is to eventually make it more visually-friendly, with bar graphs or something. I could make a raw output version too (JSON or XML), if there was demand for it.

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Nice webpage Pat. I wouldn't worry about making it too fancy at the moment. Perhaps it could provide some other statistics like match score average for a team, match score standard deviation for a team, and DPR. My only other request for the page would be to put headings at the top of the page that state the order of the data.

As it is, the generated page is very nice because the html is easily parsable by any other app. Further extensions would make the data XML-based, yet the coupling of the parsing for it would be about the same:

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

All of the OPR and DPR calculations I've done were practically instantaneous... but, I'm generally working with local data. Considering how powerful the average Android phone is, I'd say it shouldn't take more than 10 seconds -- quick to the point where it would probably take more power to download the data than to calculate the scores locally.
I'd say that your matrix library is either awfully inefficient or you don't have local data to work with...

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

I downloaded this great app (good job! :) ) to my brand new Galaxy S-2 but when i set a team for push notifications i get a message: The device is not registered for push notifications. go to settings... and then i go to the settings and i get: registering... registration in progress.... its like that for 2 hours now...
is it because their are no competitions now or is there a problem on my specific phone?

thanks

Re: Android App - FRC Spyder
 

Will there be an FRC Spyder update for 2014? Or a fresh Install?